We encounter this all the time. It mostly happens when an authoritative source has submitted or claimed the listing.

We don't really deal with Yelp, but to solve this issue I would e-mail feedback@yelp.com and cc your client on the email and tell them that this listing has wrong information and it should be changed to (insert what it should be changed to). Tell them you are unable to change it yourself since the listing is locked and that you've cc'd the client.

There are other solutions, but this is about as far as we usually go with it.

Invalid email

I have the same issue on quite a few of my managed Yelp listings.. only way around it is to contact your Yelp account manager directly.. they told me "Directory information is often locked so that user aren't able to go in and edit business listing information." doesnt make sense when these are paid listings i manage.. but thats how yelp is

It sounds like you guys have got this particular Yelp issue ironed out, but one thing I?ve noticed is that after a certain period of time ? usually at least a couple months ? Yelp *seems* to unlock the business name. Maybe it?s just me? But I seem to have noticed this on several occasions ? almost as if there?s a ?freeze? period.

This probably isn?t germane to a claimed listing, but I?ve had a few clients who never get around to doing the phone-verification that?s necessary for claiming a listing, which means sometimes the dilemma becomes ?Gee, how can we change a locked business name on a listing that isn?t claimed?? Anyway, I think part of Yelp?s anti-spam efforts involve preventing *frequent* changes to the business name, so in some cases I?d say that as a last resort simply waiting might help, whether or not the listing has been claimed.

1

I have a client that I've trained to get yelp reviews from happy clients. They got 7 legit ones in one week and yelp isn't showing any of them. The staff is losing motivation as they are seeing no results for their efforts.

As Chris said, Yelp is hugely biased in favor of seasoned Yelpers. First-timers' reviews get filtered mercilessly. (Kind of a paradox: "Which came first: the Yelper or the Yelp review?" Maybe that's a Zen koan worth meditating on.)

Another big factor seems to be the frequency at which people try to post reviews. If 7 people in a week try to post reviews, that looks weird to Yelp - particularly if the week before or the week after nobody tried to write reviews. The pace at which customers even try to write reviews needs to be slow and consistent long-term.

Also - and this is empirical on my part - Yelp's filter seems to favor reviews that aren't just gushing. Most reviews on Yelp are pretty nuanced, along the lines of "I had a great experience at [business], though one minor quibble I had was [insert trifling complaint that wouldn't rankle a normal person]." Don't take this point to the bank, though; again, it's just my observation. Definitely be mindful of the "frequency" factor I mentioned earlier, though.

This happened to bar/restaurant right near me. I go there a quite often- best bar food in town. It's a dive- only locals go.

Well two months ago they had a PR nightmare. After a Panthers game, a disabled Marine (amputee) came to the bar wearing a Cowboys jersey. Needless to say, some drunk loser mouthed off to the Vet and things went south.

The manager had to stop it and asked the Vet's party to leave and then kicked out the drunk.

Two days later it was all over the news- "Local pub refuses to serve double amputee Veteran". It went viral within a few hours. The pub had to delete their FB page. They received death threats- so they had to take the phone off the hook.

Hundreds of people went to their Yelp page (and G+L) and wrote scathing reviews.

Long story short- a few weeks later when the mob moved on, the Yelp reviews were deleted and filtered. Now it's back to pre-sh*t storm... with a few negative reviews still published.

This happened to bar/restaurant right near me. I go there a quite often- best bar food in town. It's a dive- only locals go.

Well two months ago they had a PR nightmare. After a Panthers game, a disabled Marine (amputee) came to the bar wearing a Cowboys jersey. Needless to say, some drunk loser mouthed off to the Vet and things went south.

The manager had to stop it and asked the Vet's party to leave and then kicked out the drunk.

Two days later it was all over the news- "Local pub refuses to serve double amputee Veteran". It went viral within a few hours. The pub had to delete their FB page. They received death threats- so they had to take the phone off the hook.

Hundreds of people went to their Yelp page (and G+L) and wrote scathing reviews.

Long story short- a few weeks later when the mob moved on, the Yelp reviews were deleted and filtered. Now it's back to pre-sh*t storm... with a few negative reviews still published.

I hope that pub went out of business and the owners are sleeping under a bridge somewhere, getting nibbled on by rats. What losers.

Typical Yelp. They chicken out, even from their own "principles." The same activist employees who pillory businesses that allegedly "buy" reviews (maybe they do, maybe they don't) don't want to get their hair ruffled in a legitimate uproar. Personally, I'd rather have a few shill reviews on the site - which I and most other people can smell a mile away - than have to wonder whether a business I see on Yelp has had its reputation artificially propped up.

@Chris
Gotcha. Thanks for the extra detail. I see what you mean, and that the whole situation was probably way grayer than I initially thought.

It sounds like the owner isn?t a horrible guy, although I do think any response short of giving the vet and his party a hearty apology and a round of beers on the house is inadequate and unfair (to say nothing of throwing out the guy).

I guess Yelp does need to draw the line at death threats and the like. But I also hope that Yelp was at least consistent when deciding whether to throw out reviews by people who weren?t patrons: Unfortunately, there are a LOT of those on Yelp (?the receptionist was rude, so I didn?t do business with them?), so I hope Yelp didn?t make an exception in this case.

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